One Hour Project

This is a photo taken in my studio (Acme Studios, The Fire Station, London), by Jens Marott as part of his project, One Hour, about artists and their working environments.
 
"One Hour is about artists and their creative space, be it on a houseboat in Hackney or in a council flat on the 11th floor, yet these creative people keep producing art.

There are studios all over England where artists can rent studio spaces at affordable prices, these spaces are either government funded or private run.

I have been lucky to be invited into each artist's creative space, to document who they are and how they work, for one hour."

Jens Marott
http://www.jensmarott.com/gallery_284435.html

Beating the Odds

This weekend, I went to a professional development session with Matt Roberts at his gallery in Vyner Street. Most artists at the early or mid-career stage of their career are looking at ways of moving on to the next level, but it's always useful to have some input whatever stage you're at.

Matt started by asking what my goals were. Easy enough to answer. He looked at some of my paintings and my cv. Apparently, I'm not exhibiting enough to gain exposure for my work. Artists who are successful in promoting their careers often show their work perhaps 8-10 times a year. Me, I am usually happy with one show minimum, and three shows per year would count as a good year. I shall try to aim higher in the future.

I heard that only about 500 artists in London are making a living by their work alone, although there are thousands of artists here, and more art schools and galleries than in any other capital city. With odds like that, it's no wonder that so many artists struggle to survive.

A life of its own

Someone contacted me recently through my website about two large paintings she'd bought of mine about nine years ago. She sent me jpgs of the work and I immediately recognized the paintings. They were from a batch of work I'd consigned to a skip in 2001 when I'd moved from a large studio complex in London at Acme Studios, Carpenters Road, Stratford.

And those are not the first of the paintings that have since been resurrected from the skip. A couple of years ago another person contacted me about an early piece of work, which was from the very same batch of paintings I'd tried to discard.

When the studios closed, due to redevelopment of the area, many of the artists were sifting through their paintings which had accumulated over the years, having to make decisions about what to keep and what to discard. Some artists had to put work into storage, or just didn't have room in their new studios to take everything.

A friend helped me sort through my work. All the paintings I felt I could live without, being documented on slide, were discarded. I guess I must have consigned about ten paintings to one of the skips in the yard.

But I discovered that the work has a life of its own once it leaves the artist's studio, and there is no knowing where it will ultimately find a home. Sometimes a painting will change hands many times, people selling it on or giving the work as gifts.

Despite my best efforts to destroy those early paintings, they are still in the world! I have learnt from this experience - and now I always slash any canvases I wish to discard before I bin them. That way they are well and truly destroyed...

The Fire Station

Painting's going well! Thanks to everyone who's reading my blog and posting comments - it's great to have your feedback.

More about my studio - my studio's in London, in a disused Fire Station built in 1911 for the GLC. It's in an industrial area of the city, near to the Olympic site. When the building first opened as a fire station a hundred years ago, there were horse-drawn fire engines there. The families of the firemen used to live upstairs too, so there's a real sense of history to the building.

There are five floors of studios, overlooking a courtyard on one side and the A12 motorway on the other. The building is just a short distance from Canary Wharf's gleaming towers which can be seen from the road, but it's a world away in every sense. Indeed, a friend visiting from New York remarked how similar the area felt to Long Island City, a similarly urban environment.

There are concrete floors in my studio on the ground floor, and it's freezing cold in winter. Yet it's the best studio I've had so far. I must say that the two studios I worked in when I lived in New York were some of the worst!

Twelve new artists are moving into the studios upstairs next week, and the decorators have been busy for several weeks getting their spaces ready. The residents upstairs change every five years. They live and work there, but my studio is a working space only - about 600 sq ft, with three big windows and a sky light. Four other artists have studios downstairs near me.

When I first left art school, I used to paint at home (not at the kitchen table, but in one of the rooms in my flat) but I soon realized that I prefer to have a separation between home and work. Everyone's practice is different.

I've posted a photo of my studio at the Fire Station above - it does not always look that tidy!